Costa Rica: First World Prices, Third World Hassles

We had to visit Costa Rica. We'd read so much, and saw it as a possible escape from a crumbling American empire.
Indeed, it is a lovely place. We'd expected a sort of a Central American, European slanted nation with the highest per capita income
In the region. What we got was rather an upscale Mexico, with somewhat better off citizens, but still lots of third world issues; things like power outages, water outages, lousy roads and middling food. The real surprise, though, were the prices. Don't let anyone tell you that Costa Rica is cheap. Far from it. For example, not very exciting lager beer, think Bud, is about $7 a six pack, a loaf of wonder bread style is a bit over $3. Ground beef is around $3a pound as is butter. A middling hotel is $100 a night. It just goes on and on. You won't save anything over US costs visiting or living here.

We're staying in a failing condo project in Ocotal, just next to Playas del Coco. The condos are very nice, but constitute an enclave which fosters all sorts of probably foolish thinking such as "if you go out after dark, the _will_ rob you. Actually, moving about, it seems unlikely that the families walking the evening streets would rob anyone. As far as actually walking from Ocotal to Coco at 9pm, I have't actually tested the thing either way. My bet, however, is that you'd be as safe as you would be in the average Portland, Or neighborhood.

At the local beach (Playa Ocotal) you're met by either a couple of kids (weekdays) or an elderly gent both sets of whom want money for something to do with parking. Since it's a public beach with nothing posted about parking fees, it's tough to claim there's a fee. What usually comes up is that they'll watch your car. Being from Jersey, Marianne see's this, quite reasonably, as extortion. Sort of "nice car you got there, be a shame if something happened to it". This leaves Marianne a bit apoplectic. I tend to see it as income sharing with folks much poorer than I. Still, as per the title of this missive, it is distinctly third world.

The roads are pretty bad. We've now gone to two national parks (Rincon de la Vieja and Palo Verde, the first to see the volcano and the second to try bird watching). Rincon lies down a out 16 miles of a gravel and dirt road. There's even a quasi legal entrepreneur who has thrown a barrier across the public road and charges a buck and a half per passenger for vehicles to pass. Once at the park, hiking is the only activity. The circular, 1.5 mile trail (two hours done slowly-though slow is the fastest one can go), is the worst hiking track I've ever done. It is a marathon of large tree roots to scramble over along with rocks and boulders or both, all of these often wet, slick mud involving steep ascents or descents. This is not to mention the stream crossings which use from rocks to boulders to rocks with a helper rope, to a felled stream spanning log with it's helper rope as well. Not the best experience for guy with impaired balance and an artificial hip. We did see amazing thing, though. Monkeys, fabulous butterflies of iridescent blue with fist sized wings, a dragonfly which was totally transparent save for tiny yellow balls on it's wing tips, and rodents that resemble small wombats with red ears.

Today we went "birding". It didn't work. We managed the 20km horrid dirt road to Palo Verde National Park. It was tough, but we did it-the little Pugeot 206 doing it's damnedest. The road from the in unattended park entrance to where the birds hang out was, alas, more than the little car could do. A land rover or jeep wrangler would have had ground clearance enough to handle it-the wee car didn't. We turned back and stopped at the new enclosed mall on route one in Liberia and watched the latest Harry Potter movie, English with Spanish subtitles. The movie, at $7 for both of us was a bargain-though it was the sunday matinee.

Our conclusion, so far..your best tropical bet, all around, is Hawaii. We might, however change our minds. You never know and we've more than a week of a two week stay left. More anon.